Forums » Suggestions

Shadows and thrust visuals

Dec 01, 2004 Voldon Furlberg link
Could we add a little shadow to the universe? Much like the intro shot before the game loads. I know one of the Dev's thinks shadows would be a good idea.

And since I’m on a visual thing... shouldn’t we see the same amount of thrust on all sides of the ship not just the back? This may take some reworking of the ship models but visual things in the game help make the game more immersive.
Dec 01, 2004 roguelazer link
AFAIK, the engine doesn't support dynamic shadows. The intro shot was rendered in 3dsmax, not with WGAF.
Dec 01, 2004 Voldon Furlberg link
I figured as much that it wasn't an in game shot. This is why I suggested it would be nice if the engine could be made to do it. If it isn't code-able then I guess it isn't in the cards and I'm just as happy as I am now.

The thrust effects would be nice tho eh?
Dec 01, 2004 roguelazer link
Just think about how much time it took to code Doom 3's shadows... Now, GS is just 4 guys...
Dec 01, 2004 Voldon Furlberg link
We aren't talking about real shadows.. you can fake it useing the effects they all ready have. I'm not thinking you would have to go dark if you fly behind a station. It could be something simple as texture baking the station textures.

At any rate I put this out there as a suggestion. Are you saying you wouldn't like to see shadows in the game? The guys obviously know what they are doing with the nice glow effects, textures and shading already in the game.
Dec 02, 2004 ananzi link
shadows are nice but would bump off all the people playing on low end computers.

as it is on the 1.1ghz i use, it has trouble rendering those certain sectors that are massive collections of silica/carbonate asteroids clumped in one big filled-sphere pattern. these are almost always in the 'unmarked' sectors, without bots, so i dont know if many people have seen them. but they tax the engine.
Dec 02, 2004 Voldon Furlberg link
Nah, it would be just like turning off effects detail, space junk detail, scene level of detail, etc. in the graphics options.
Dec 03, 2004 harvestmouse link
sure, Voldon. it'll just be eye candy, not much more.
the light and shadows from the surrounding objects already glance off the surface of your ship, which is really nice.
maybe someday, who knows.